From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
awesome
adj : inspiring awe or admiration or wonder; "New York is an
amazing city"; "the Grand Canyon is an awe-inspiring
sight"; "the awesome complexity of the universe"; "this
sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some
hidden soul beneath"- Melville; "Westminster Hall's
awing majesty, so vast, so high, so silent" [syn:
amazing, awe-inspiring, awful, awing]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Awesome \Awe"some\, a.
1. Causing awe; appalling; awful; as, an awesome sight.
--Wright.
[1913 Webster]
2. Expressive of awe or terror.
[1913 Webster]
An awesome glance up at the auld castle. --Sir W.
Scott.
[1913 Webster]